Jeffrey Morgenthaler

Latest Drink Recipe

Man, there are few things out there more polarizing to people than creamy drinks. And it’s funny, you know, because I think it’s a pretty universal thing that our mouths just water at the sight of a creamy cocktail. Look at a properly made Ramos Gin Fizz. Or a White Russian. Or Egg Nog. How delicious do they look?

But then there’s this guilty feeling that I think kicks in for most people, where it’s like, “I can’t justify drinking something that contains a bunch of fucking cream.” And I get it, I totally do. Personally, I also try to save up those points and spend them during the holidays.

But there’s no getting around the delicious factor. So what about alternatives? I like almond milk in my coffee. I even make my own at home. But one creamy substitute that I can’t live without in my life is horchata. See the previous post for more on that. Anyway, as someone who has been making drinks for almost half of his life at this point, I had to try making something with horchata.

My partner in crime at Clyde Common is a gentleman named Benjamin Amberg. But we all call him (among other things), simply Banjo. Banjo and I have a great way of working on cocktails together. It’s very collaborative, and nobody gets too attached to an idea if a better one comes along. (I wrote more about this process for Playboy, check it out)

And so it happened that we started working on our new horchata cocktail. And, of course, we broke out all of the typical formulas that we’d both seen on menus before: aged rum and horchata; aged tequila and horchata; variations on a White Russian with horchata instead of cream. And none of them were working, and we were about to scrap the whole idea.

But then we had a thought: what if instead of a flabby, creamy drink, we did something more bright and citrusy? We certainly hadn’t seen that done before, and we know rice milk isn’t going to curdle the way cream would. And suddenly, within minutes, we’d assembled what is quickly becoming one of our most popular new drinks, the Southbound Suarez. Named after our favorite song on our least favorite Led Zeppelin album, I like to think the same stands of a reminder of just how tough this one was to create.

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A side project, an experiment or just a simple curiosity that turned into a delicious phenomenon that we're still serving to much delight at our bar, barrel aged cocktails explore the gentle manipulation of a drink's flavors over time. This post details the inspiration, the history and the methods behind my barrel aged cocktails.

My problem with homemade tonic water has always been a flavor profile that was too esoteric for the general audience. This recipe takes some of the positive qualities people have come to understand from commercial tonic water and updated them with fresh ingredients.

Turned off by the glop you find in the grocery store, and unable to endure another long egg and cream whipping session, I set out to build an egg nog recipe from the ground up that retained the character of the orginal formula, was easy to make in a few minutes at home or at the bar, and tasted absolutely delicious. See if you agree with the result.

One question I'm often asked is "Do you have any drink-related book recommendations?" Well, funny you should ask, I've compiled a list of the ten books every professional bartender or home mixologist should own. I keep every one of these close at hand and have read most of them several times. I suggest you do the same.

The problem with living in Oregon is the absence of little wooden shacks by the sea that sell cases of fresh ginger beer stacked on back porches. But with some readily-available ingredients, a recipe I've been revising for several years - and a few free minutes - I can easily transport myself to a little fishing boat on the ocean as I sip a Dark and Stormy made with fresh, house-made ginger beer.

It's always mojito season somewhere, so this advice is timely in your area about half the year. Wether you're making them or simply enjoying them, this advice will help you look like a pro in no time at all.

Not to be confused with the Spanish wine-and-fruit-based alcoholic beverage sangria, sangrita (meaning "little blood") is a traditional accompaniment to a tequila served completo; a non-alcoholic sipper that cleanses the palate between fiery doses of agave.

The world of booze can be mystifying to people that don't work in bars or around alcohol all the time. I hear a lot of assumptions about the industry I'm in that are - much like 90% of what you hear in bars - completely false. Here are a few you've probably heard yourself.

The traditional garnish for a Pisco Sour is a couple of drops of bitters in the foam, but I've never been particularly impressed with the way these few paltry drops of bitters sat in their little egg-white mattress and didn't play along with the rest of the drink. I envisioned a Pisco Sour with a uniformly-distributed bitters-scorched foam: slightly crisp as the fire burnt the sugars, and slightly warm as the foam insulated the rest of the frosty cocktail from the heat. A pisco creme brulée in a glass!

I always love showing up to a party with a gallon jug of pre-mixed margaritas, so I've decided to share my recipe. This margarita recipe is the perfect blend of strong, sweet, and sour. But be warned: this recipe packs a serious punch.

There isn't much I can say about this video that hasn't been said already. If you've read anything I've written about cocktails, you'll understand why this video symbolizes everything wrong with the state of bartending in America today. Watch and learn, but be warned: this one isn't for the feint of heart.

About Me

My name is Jeff Morgenthaler and I'm the bar manager at Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon.

I've been tending bar since 1996 and writing about it since 2004. I started tending bar while getting my degree in Interior Architecture, and slowly I came to the conclusion that bartending was what I really loved, and that I might as well drop everything and focus on being a professional bartender. Over the years I have strived, both behind the bar and with this website, to elevate the experience of having a drink from something mundane to something more culinary.

The writing I do here is intended as a work in progress. My recipes are like my opinions: they are constantly being revised and refined as I work them through my mind and my fingers. Comments and participation are encouraged, so please don't feel the need to tread lightly here.

My Cocktail Recipes

I’ve kicked myself many times for never participating in the brilliant Mixology Mondays that Paul over at the Cocktail Chronicles put together last year, but my lack of participation has more to do with the fact that Sunday is my one day off – the one day I never seem to have a computer in my lap. But with my sweetie working Mother’s Day brunch today, I’ve got a little time to put together something very special for my first (and hopefully not last) foray into Mixology Monday. Here we go!

I’ve been playing with making my own bitters lately. I love bitters and have a small collection of them in my liquor cabinet, from Gary Regan’s Orange Bitters, to Fee Brothers’ Mint Bitters. After reading this article online about making grapefruit bitters, I decided to try it, with my own variations.

The origin of the Bee’s Knees cocktail is lost to history, but we do know that it popped up sometime during Prohibition. The recipe doesn’t appear anywhere in my copy of The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book by Albert Stevens Crockett, but my Trader Vic’c Bartender’s Guide shows two recipes, one for a Bee’s Knees made with applejack, and one for a Bee’s Knee made with gin. Both recipes, however, call for honey and lemon.

Congratulations to those who won, and I hope the rest of you losers will post your own recipes in the comments. Here’s mine, the Brazil ‘66 (with apologies to the great Sergio Mendez and the venerable French 75):

Muddle strawberries and grenadine in bottom of a mixing glass until berries form a smooth paste. Add remaining ingredients and fill with ice. Stir ingredients until cold and strain into a chilled champagne flute. Garnish with a strawberry slice and mint sprig.

Created by bar manager James West at Marché Restaurant, Eugene, Oregon

I had this drink tonight and was completely blown away. You won’t find many drinks on this blog that were created by bartenders other than me (it is my website after all) but this drink deserves to be the exception to the rule.

I don’t normally reach for the amaretto when I’m mixing, but this drink is the very definition of balance. Think of it as an amaretto Manhattan with a kick, but rather than stirring this one, shake it to tame the flavors and break up the star anise – releasing its delicate oils.

Sometimes a drink idea takes days of adjusting and tasting to finalize the recipe, but sometimes it will just come to me. When someone mentioned that Valentine’s Day was coming up in a week and that I should come up with a set of special drinks for the occasion, my wee brain somehow managed to kick into gear and come up with this drink. Don’t ask me how I did it.

I had just picked up a new bottle of House Spirits’ fabulous, rich, creamy, herbaceous Aviation Gin, and somehow knew that it would work beautifully with one of my all-time favorite liqueurs, Mathilde creme de cassis (liqueur of black currants). I added a little lemon for balance, and the drink was ready.

The result is gorgeous. The color is a deep pink. The mouthfeel is tight and bracing. The flavor is like a flower, rich and herbally. It’s romantic, it’s deep, and it’s a perfect balance between masculine and feminine. Try it sometime.

Shake well over cracked ice and strain into a chilled nine ounce cocktail glass. For Valentine’s Day we garnished the drink by floating white rose petals on top, but edible flowers such as pansies or nasturtiums would work beautifully in the spring when they can be found. If you’re out of flowers, use a lemon wedge and call it good.

Another note: if you can’t find Aviation gin in your store, try to find Plymouth gin or even Hendrick’s gin for a similar flavor.

Well, about six years later, I finally got around to making a video about my Brandy Alexander story. Click below to watch the Small Screen Network video about my dad and his first experience with Brandy Alexanders. Then come back to read the post and grab the recipe.

All this talk of Chocolate Martinis is giving me diabetes. Sure, you can pour a bunch of sweet, creamy liqueurs into a glass and call it the Fine Art of Mixology, but you’d be missing the whole point. Why not try something that’s going to reward you from start to finish, a drink that packs the Bacchanalian punch of brandy with the delicate flavors of chocolate and cream?

The Brandy Alexander, popular during the first part of the 20th Century, was likely a derivative of the Alexander Cocktail, which uses gin in place of brandy. Both are wonderful concoctions, but the brandy version achieved greater fame in the pantheon of cocktail culture, possibly because of brandy being revered as a rare and sophisticated spirit and gin having a more pedestrian image pre- and during Prohibition.

Okay. On to the drink. It’s so worth it to find whole nutmeg in your grocery store and grate it yourself, rather than using the stale, pre-grated crap you’ll find.

Victor Bergeron – Trader Vic – created this drink back in the 40s, and is quoted in the 1947 edition of his Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide as saying, “Anyone who says that I didn’t create this drink is a dirty stinker.”

When I visited Trader Vic’s in Beverly Hills, I watched their skilled mixologists closely to try to learn the secrets of this drink (shaved ice is key here, kids) but I recently found the recipe online here.

When made properly, the Mai Tai is a smooth, slightly sweet, and potent concoction – and well worthy of our sophisticated palates (heh).

Latest Product Review

Build a Better ($5.63) Muddler

I was having this conversation with a writer about my new book on cocktail technique last week, and she got on the subject of bar tools. “A lot of this stuff is really expensive,” she said, “Do you have any advice for home cocktail enthusiasts who don’t want to spend a ton of money?”
And I [...]